Foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation are examined in a forthcoming book which sets out to show how payments were directly related to policy decisions benefiting foreign entities during former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's tenure, according to a report in
The New York Times.
The new book by author Peter Schweizer —
"Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich" — won't be released until May 5, but the Times obtained a copy and offered a glimpse into its revelations.
The book has already been described by GOP presidential hopeful Rand Paul as "big news" that will "shock people and make voters "question" Clinton's candidacy.
"We will see a pattern of financial transactions involving the Clintons that occurred contemporaneous with favorable U.S. policy decisions benefiting those providing the funds," wrote Schweizer, according to the Times.
Schweizer lists a number of examples in the book: a free-trade agreement in Colombia that benefited a donor's natural resource investments in the country; development projects after the Haitian earthquake; and more than $1 million in payments to former President Bill Clinton by a Canadian bank and major shareholder in the Keystone XL pipeline at the time it was being debated at the State Department, the Times said.
The Times, The Washington Post and Fox News all have exclusive agreements with the author to cover its findings, and a number of Republican candidates have already been briefed about its contents. Conservative super PACs also plan to capitalize on the book's findings.
The Clinton campaign is assembling a response operation in an attempt to head off collateral damage. Strategists reportedly will claim Schweizer, a conservative, is politically motivated. A campaign spokesman, Brian Fallon, has already said the book is part of Republicans' coordinated attack strategy on Clinton, "twisting previously known facts into absurd conspiracy theories."
"It will not be the first work of partisan-fueled fiction about the Clintons' record, and we know it will not be the last," he said, according to the Times.
Schweizer also details a cash trail from 2001–12 adding up to a personal income for the Clintons of at least $136.5 million, though most of that is unrelated to the foundation.
"During Hillary's years of public service, the Clintons have conducted or facilitated hundreds of large transactions" with foreign governments and individuals, he wrote, according to the Times. "Some of these transactions have put millions in their own pockets."
The Clinton Foundation announced last week that it would
no longer be accepting donations from countries in the Middle East, allowing just a few Western allies to continue contributing.